"LORD REBUKE ME NOT IN THY FURY": STUNNING ILLUMINATED LEAF FROM THE 16TH-CENTURY CORTANVAUX-ELMHIRST BOOK OF HOURS, FEATURING A RARE HAND-COLORED IMAGE OF KING DAVID IN PRAYER WITH AN UNUSUALLY BEAUTIFUL BORDER
(ILLUMINATED LEAF). Illuminated Leaf from the Cortanvaux-Elmhirst Book of Hours. Probably Chalons-en-Champagne, France, circa 1480. Single vellum leaf (4-3/4 by 5-3/4 inches), illuminated in gold, blue, red, black, green, gray, pink, brown, orange yellow, and white inks. Matted and framed, entire piece measures 13 by 10 inches.
Exquisite illuminated miniature from the French Cortanvaux-Elmhirst Book of Hours, an exceptional, large, hand-colored image depicting King David in Prayer, with two lines of Latin text from Psalm 6 in batarde script and one two-line initials beneath the image, beautifully bordered in burnished gold with flowers, strawberries, leaves, and painstakingly rendered birds and owls on three sides. Lovely and most rare.
This beautiful illuminated miniature is from the Cortanvaux-Elmhirst Book of Hours, believed to have been completed in Châlons-en-Champagne, France (based on the prominence of St. Stephen in an unusual miniature in the complete Book; the Cathedral of Châlons is dedicated to him). This Book of Hours is referred to as the "Cortanvaux-Elmhirst" Book of Hours because of its most famous owners, François Cesar Le Tellier, marquis de Courtanvaux (1718-1781) and Edward Mars Elmhirst (1915-1957). Le Tellier was not born a bibliophile. Indeed, when he entered the army as a teenager, he had very little formal education. However, illness forced his retirement after only five years and he soon turned to academic study, eventually attaining such heights of learning that he was twice made president of the Académie royale des science. By the end of his life, he had become a book collector, amassing a library of over 4,000 titles, including the Book of Hours that once contained this leaf. Edward Elmhirst, on the other hand, was an academic from the start: a well-known surgeon as well as an accomplished entomologist. However, his greatest fame came through his avocation: heraldry. Elmhirst collected Tudor portraits and achieved sufficient knowledge of heraldry that he was offered a position as herald-extraordinary at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The illuminated manuscript that contained this leaf—a particularly lovely example—would have been very much in line with his collecting. The large domed miniature on this leaf depicts King David in prayer under a portico with a book and a harp at his feet. Additionally, David looks up at a haloed, pointing figure in the top corner of the miniature, likely the Prophet Nathan. A richly detailed Jerusalem landscape unfurls in the background. The scene is framed with a few simple rules and then lushly bordered with a burnished gilt ground containing strawberries, acanthus leaves, green leaves, and flowers on tall stems. The borders also feature ten exquisitely rendered birds and owls. The recto features two lines of batarde script from Psalm 6, one of the Penitential Psalms, as well as a two-line initial in pink on a blue ground with green acanthus leaves in the center. The verso is ruled for 14 lines, but blank. See Peter Kidd, Medieval Manuscripts Provenance. Evidence of attachment to book on verso.
Bright and beautiful.